Tuesday, March 30, 2010

It's Freezer Month

Clean up your freezer and restock it to make it easier to eat pure on busy days.  (That would be every day, right?) As we make the move from highly processed foods to more pure alternatives,  it is still convenient to have prepared meals in the freezer. Every household is different but it is not hard to make double recipes of favorites and eat part this week and freeze the rest in family- and individual-sized portions.  Here are five frozen favorites we like to have on hand:

Top 5 Freezer Foods  (recipes below)
Soup or Chili: try Southwestern Chicken Soup
Homemade cookie dough: try Dried Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Quick bite: try Rice and Bean Burritos
Pasta- or grain-based casserole: try Muscle Memory Creole Spaghetti
Party food that can also go with soup: try Cheese Crackers

We also store frozen homemade bread and pizza dough, filo, plain vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds for salads and baking, meats and ice.  Items get stored by category.  They are easier to find and, by storing like items together,  I can prevent  cross-contamination in the event of a power  outage.  I store uncooked foods like raw chicken and beef on colder shelves at the bottom and ready to eat breads and cooked soups on higher shelves.  The temperature of a freezer should be zero degrees.  A hanging freezer thermometer  allows me to check the temperature.  I move it around to different areas to check any temperature differential.  My stand-up freezer is not large and I rarely see much fluctuation but I still check it.  

ServeSafe food safety guidelines used by the National Restaurant Association instruct restaurants  to refuse deliveries of frozen foods that have partially thawed or have thawed and refrozen.  Indications are fluids of frozen liquids on package bottoms and ice crystals on the package.   Follow this advice for your family and check for these indications at the store.  Pick up frozen items last and if you have a long drive home consider bringing a cooler with a frozen pack in your car’s trunk to prevent "milage meltage." (I do this in the summer.  It’s so darn cold here other times that placing frozen foods in the trunk is sufficient at other times of the year.)

What is not in my freezer?
No frozen prepared pizza,  no HFCS-sweetened pop-sicles,  no pre-processed frozen foods like sauced vegetables,  no whipped dessert topping, no French fries.  Yet we can put on a great meal fast and concoct a pretty great dessert with little notice with the supplies at hand.  No frozen prepared pizza could compete with our simple Neopolitan version, pop-sicles and ice cream take little notice to create from scratch, vegetables with olive oil, butter or even a little cream just plain taste better and oven baked fries are simple enough already.  If you feel guilty about eating real whipped cream, whisk it by hand and get a free bicep and deltoid workout. 

Top Five Freezer Foods - Recipes
(Double recipes to have freeze half and
enjoy half now.)

Southwest Chicken Soup
By varying a few ingredients, you can give chicken soup a southwestern identity. 

Ingredients
2 quarts low-sodium (or homemade) chicken broth
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks celery,  sliced
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2 plum tomatoes,  cut in large chunks
optional: 1 tomatillo, diced
1 jalepeno pepper, seeds and veins removed and diced
juice of 1/2 lime
hot sauce to taste
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 14-oz can low-sodium black beans, drained
Optional garnishes: avocado slices, fresh cilantro and strips of crisped corn tortillas (Slice corn tortillas into strips with a pizza cutter and heat in toaster oven at 350˚F for 5-6 minutes turning once.)

Method
  1. Cook carrots, celery, onion, zucchini and tomatoes in simmering chicken broth until carrots are tender, about 15-20 minutes.  
  2. Add remaining ingredients and heat through.  If serving immediately garnish with  thinly sliced avocado, fresh cilantro and tortilla strips.  
  3. To freeze, allow soup to cool and refrigerate.  Once cool, package in smaller servings and freeze.  Thaw before reheating and add finishing garnishes. 


Dried Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dried cranberries are also good in these classic cookies.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips (dark or semi-sweet)
1 cup dried cherries, chopped if larger than the chips
optional: 1 cup chopped nuts

Method
  1. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into small bowl. 
  2. In a large bowl, combine softened butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract and beat by hand or with an electric mixer until mixture is light and creamy. 
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating well before proceeding to next step.  
  4. Stir in flour mixture, about 1/3 at a time.  
  5. Stir in morsels, dried cherries and nuts until distributed throughout the dough. 
  6. Divide dough in half and roll each half into a log.  Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap.   
  7. If baking immediately, refrigerate for 30 minutes.  If freezing, place rolls in a freezer bag and store. 
  8. To bake immediately preheat oven to 375° F. while dough rests in refrigerator.   Slice roll into 1/2-inch-thick pieces and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Space dough about two inches apart. 
  9. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to a wire racks with a spatula.   Cooled, baked cookies can also be frozen.
Allow frozen cookie dough to thaw to a slicing consistency and bake as above from step 8.





 
Rice and Bean Burritos
Makes 12 burritos
Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
2 14-oz cans black beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon each cumin and oregano
1/2 cup fresh salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 –1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
12 whole wheat flour tortillas
optional: 1 cup cooked ground meat,  sliced olives

Method
  1. Place black beans in a small pot and add cumin and oregano.  Warm beans and if using cooked ground meat, stir into beans.  Remove from heat. 
  2. Warm tortillas so that they do not crack and break during rolling. Tortillas can me warmed in a toaster oven for a few minutes on 300˚F or placed in toweling in the microwave  on medium for 15-20 seconds.  Have some tin foil or wax paper sheets on hand to wrap the burritos in for freezing.  
  3. Place a warm and flexible tortillas on a sheet and scoop a few tablespoons of rice and bean filling down center leaving a 1-2 inch border at either end.  
  4. Add remaining ingredients: salsa, cheese , cilantro and olives if using.  Fold the sides up over the filling.  
  5. Roll the bottom edge over the filling and folded sides and continue to roll, packing the filling in tightly until the opposite edge is reached.  Roll the burrito in foil or wax paper to seal completely.   Repeat process until all tortillas and filling is used.  
  6. Place wrapped burritos in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate until firm and cold.  Label and freeze.  
  7. To reheat from frozen: if wrapped in tin foil you can place individual burritos in a toaster oven or oven at 350˚ for 20 minutes or until hot in the center.  If wrapped in wax paper, reheat in microwave for 5-7 minutes at high power.   These burritos are good plain or add a dollop of sour cream and hot sauce when warmed.

Muscle Memory Creole Spaghetti
Poor school lunches have been in the news lately.   This recipe is my adult memory of a baked pasta made every week at my grammar school that is pure and tasty.  It is an enduring favorite among alums across decades and discussed fondly at reunions.  No one in my northern school knew why it was dubbed  “creole” but I suspect the “exotic” green peppers had something to do with it. This is a robust grown-up version of what I suspect was a fairly healthy dish compared to today’s school fare.  I doubt the most excellent lunch ladies at Julian Curtis School added wine to their recipe, but this makes the sauce a bit more complex.  Skip it if you prefer to cook without alcohol. 

Serves 4
Ingredients
1lb ground beef or turkey
1medium onion, diced
1 cup green pepper (canned OK)
1cup roasted red pepper
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup fresh, chopped parsley
1 teaspoon each basil, oregano
salt, black pepper and red pepper to taste (good pinch of each to start)
1 28-oz can  plain, low-salt tomato sauce
1 & 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (OK to add in some jack cheese)
12 oz whole-wheat rotini  or #8 spaghetti

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 350˚,
  2. Boil water for pasta and cook according to package directions. 
  3. Meanwhile, saute onions over low heat until translucent and quite soft. Add peppers and cook down until tender.  Remove to small bowl with parsley.  
  4. Cook ground meat and drain any excess fat.  Return onion-pepper mixture to skillet and add wine.  Allow wine to cook down to half the liquid then add herbs, salt, pepper, red pepper and tomato sauce.  Bring heat down to low and stir while sauce thickens and pasta finishes cooking.  
  5. Drain pasta and add to meat sauce.  Combine completely and remove from heat.
  6. Spray a casserole dish spray oil.  
  7. Layer half pasta and meat sauce into casserole.  Cover with half of the grated cheese.  Layer remaining pasta and meat sauce over cheese and finish with a layer of cheese.  
  8. Bake uncovered at 350˚ for 15 minutes.  Check to see if heated though (thermometer at 165˚F).  Turn oven to broil and broil 3-5 minutes until cheese begins to brown. Remove from oven and let pasta sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Muscle Memory Creole Spaghetti and other cooked pasta dishes can be frozen before or after being baked.  If baked, it must cool completely in refrigerator before being wrapped for freezing.  Many people freeze a casserole in its baking dish, then remove the frozen meal from the dish to wrap and store.  When ready to reheat,  remove wrapping and replace meal in original dish to cook.  This allows you to use your dishes instead of taking them out of commission in the freezer.  To reheat a pasta casserole, lightly cover and place in a preheated 325˚F oven for 1-1 1/2 hours until hot at the center, at least  165 ˚F.  If you would like a crisped crust, remove top during last 15 minutes and sprinkle with some grated cheese. 


Easy Cheese Crackers

This dough handles like a pie or rolled cookie dough.  In fact, you can roll it like a refrigerated cookie dough and cut slices to bake or roll it out with a bit of extra flour and cut out shapes. 

Makes about 36 crackers
Ingredients
1 1/2  cups all purpose flour (try white whole wheat flour)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter (cut in 6 pieces)
6 oz hard cheese like cheddar or swiss, grated
2 tablespoons ice water
1 egg

Method
  1. Place flour, salt, cayenne, and butter in a food processor.  Pulse until just blended and pea-sized crumbs develop.   
  2. Add cheese and briefly pulse to combine.  
  3. Add egg and 1 tablespoon ice water.  Pulse to pull dough togethr into a ball.  Add more ice water, a teaspoon at a time until ball forms. 
  4. Divide dough in half and roll into two  discs or two long rolls.  Dough can be frozen at this stage.   
  5. To bake immediately preheat oven to 400˚F.   Either slice a roll into 1/2 inch slices or roll a disc of dough out to 1/2 inch thickness on a floured board and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  You can also use a pastry roller to cut dough into squares. 
  6. Bake at 400˚ for 10-12 minutes until crackers begin to brown.  
  7. Cool on wire racks.  Store in an airtight container or freeze. 
    To bake from frozen, allow dough to thaw in refrigerator several hours or overnight.  Proceed from step 5.

    Pure freezers can make the switch to pure eating really easy.  Be smart about labeling, wrapping, cooling and thawing (nothing new) and enjoy your very own pure food even more (more frequently that is).

    Sunday, March 28, 2010

    The Last Winter Squash

    Last fall I stored a nice fall crop from the farmer’s market in our makeshift root cellar, a covered open-weave basket stored in a cool dry room.   Looking back from the end of March, we’ve  enjoyed roasted Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes stewed with black beans and chilies, butternut squash gratin with rosemary and acorn squash split and roasted with maple butter.  Our local farmers market will be reopening soon and there’s just one thing left, a turban squash.   We’ll need one last recipe….

    Turban squash get its name from its hat like shape and fashionable striations.  Ours is predominantly green but you’ll see them with orange and yellow accents too.  It’s a mild squash with a slightly sweet flavor that can be boiled or baked.  It goes well with chicken, pork, lamb and even shrimp and grains.  We roasted it and served it with short grain brown rice.  With a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, it reminded us of a short cut risotto.  The leftovers were mixed with diced mozzarella cheese and piled into halved red peppers and baked.   

    Roasted Turban Squash
    1 turbon squash (butternut may also be used)
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
    salt and pepper

    Preheat oven to 425˚F.  Cut skin away from squash with a sharp knife.  Cut peeled squash in half and scoop out seeds at center.  Cut squash into bite sized pieces and place in a oven safe casserole dish (or for a small squash a glass pie plate).  Add remaining ingredients and toss well.  Roast, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes until squash is tender and a fork pierces the flesh easily.  Serve over cooked brown rice.
    Note: Any brown rice is terrific with winter squash.  I used Lundberg's short grain brown rice for these dishes.

    Roasted Squash and Rice Stuffed Peppers
    Serves 2 as a side, 1 as a main course
    1 red pepper
    1 cup cooked winter squash
    1 cup cooked brown rice
    1 oz mozzarella cheese
    1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese

    Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Line a small baking pan with tin foil and lightly spray with oil.  Cut red pepper in half lengthwise and remove stem and seeds.  You do not need to pre-bake the peppers.  Dice mozzarella cheese.  In a small bowl combine cheese with  squash and rice.  Cut squash into smaller pieces if too large for the peppers.  Divide mixture in half and fill each pepper half.  Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake 40 minutes until peppers are tender and cheese is slightly browned on top.

    Winter may not be hard to say good-bye to but local winter squash will be missed, until next year.

    Monday, March 22, 2010

    Breakfast of Pure Champions

    Switch out a few things to purify your breakfast habits and you will feel it around your waistline and around 10am when your energy reserves are still there for you.     

    Lunch for Breakfast   
    Many Americans consume over half of their daily sugar quotient by 9am.  Cereal, toaster cakes and tarts, energy bars and functional drinks provide a quick meal that promises to jump start the day but by mid-morning our bodies are wondering when the next sugar hit is coming.  The front of the box says its wholesome but you know you should be reading the label on the back to get the full picture.  Still, this is what we see in the grocery aisle marked breakfast so it’s got to be good for us, right?

    Instead of sitting down to dessert every morning, try something really revolutionary: lunch.  Widen your idea of what a breakfast sandwiches can be.   A ham sandwich on rye, turkey on whole wheat,  peanut butter and bananas on multi-grain toast, grilled cheese with tomatoes, avocado or red peppers can all qualify as breakfast. They are fast, portable and will give you more staying power through morning meetings and classes.  If you like eggs but don’t have time to scramble some in the morning, scoop some pre-made egg salad or sliced hard boiled eggs and sliced tomatoes on a hard roll and head out the door.

    With a few extra minutes you can assemble a mini whole wheat pita pocket filled with Canadian bacon, a fried egg or egg white and an ounce of cheddar cheese.  This is a first class treat and packed with long-lasting, valuable foods.  You can make a batch of these and freeze them individually in aluminum foil for a toaster-oven breakfast sandwich ready in minutes. My mother taught me to make open-faced Swiss cheese melts over grilled mushrooms and rye toast.  Sauté extra mushrooms tonight and have a fast elegant breakfast tomorrow.  What do all of these sandwiches have in common?   Some protein with a whole grain carbohydrate.  Some even pack in a little dairy.  That and the fact that you can pronounce every ingredient in your breakfast.

    Blender Breakfasts
    Energy drinks are easy to grab on the go from convenience stores and vending machines but did you know that low fat milk (also widely available) has the perfect balance of protein and carbs for replenishment?  Just make sure you get the real thing, not an enhanced version (which generally means added sugar).  You can also get serious benefits from downing a, 8-ounce shot of low-fat chocolate milk.  For those with bigger ambitions and a blender try these quick morning smoothies:

    For chocoholics, a Chocolate Monkey smoothie….
    Thank the banana for no added sugar and a nice dose of potassium.
    6 oz low-fat or non-fat milk
    1 small ripe banana, cut in chunks )try a frozen one)
    1 teaspoon cocoa powder
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
    Add half the milk and the banana to the blender and mix on low until the banana is smooth.  Add remaining ingredients. 


    For fruit lovers, a Freezer Fruit smoothie is available year round.  Because the fruit is frozen it thickens the shake naturally. 
    6 oz low-fat or non-fat milk
    4 oz fruit juice (orange juice, pineapple, pomegranate, cranberry)
    1 cup frozen fruit: mangos, peaches, berries, any combo
    2 teaspoons honey
    1/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
    Blend all ingredients together first on low, then for a few seconds on high to get a frothy mixture.

    Toasties
    Think your toaster strudel is doing the trick? Sure, it’s fast and satisfies a sweet tooth’s craving for energy but you could do better.  Try a fruit and cream cheese burrito with a cinnamon spiked all-fruit spread.  You’ll get an immediate lift plus more long lasting back-up ingredients.   Assemble the night before and heat it in the toaster oven or eat it straight from the fridge. 

    Toasted Fruit Burrito
    1 whole wheat tortilla
    1 ounce cream cheese or ricotta cheese (heaping tablespoon)
    1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
    Dash vanilla extract
    1/2 sliced fruit of your choice—peaches, pears, mango, baked apple, berries, etc
    1 tablespoon jam or all-fruit spread- any flavor

    Spread the jam on tortilla, leaving a two inch edge.  Next spread a layer of cream cheese or ricotta cheese over jam.  Pile fruit down center of tortilla, leaving edges clear.  Roll tortilla into a burrito by folding the bottom edge over the fruit. Fold the sides over perpendicular to that edge and close burrito by bringing top flap over the three folded edges.  Refrigerate overnight and take it on the road or heat in a toaster oven until the tortilla is crisped and the filling is warm.  Enjoy.

    Have Your Bagel and Eat It Too
    Have you noticed things getting larger?  The average size of a bagel has almost doubled.  Cut you bagel in half and slather on a full ounce of low fat cream cheese.  It’s the cream cheese that is holding the bagel and you together for the morning not the excess bread.  An ounce of low fat cream cheese has 2 grams of protein, 4% of your calcium requirements and about 55 calories.  If you choose a (normal-sized) bagel with some whole grains you can add in another 6-7 grams of protein.

    Speaking of protein, take a road trip to England or South America where beans are on the breakfast menu.  Baked beans on toast and black beans on a corn tortilla both pack a wallop of protein and taste great plain or with a poached egg on top. 

    94% say breakfast is most important meal but only 43% eat breakfast…

    Many dieters make calorie cuts at breakfast.  Turn this idea on its head today.  Instead of trimming the life out of the early part of your day, feed your body and supply it with what it needs to get through the day. It’s much more fun to add up then cut back when it comes to calorie counting. By ensuring you have enough energy and nutrition reserves at the start of the day you will not be tempted to overeat at lunch and during the afternoon.  I aim for at least 300-350 calories in real foods by 10 am every day.

    Dessert- The End
    Enjoy cereal but put it in its proper place: dessert.  Serve it after dinner with milk and dried fruit (try warm milk).  Crunch it up on top of fresh fruit and bake it to make a cereal fruit crisp and add ice cream or frozen yogurt.  Layer it into a parfait-to-go with plain yogurt and berries as an after school snack.  And when the box is empty, take a fresh look at the cereal aisle and in the natural food section of your grocery store for something with less sugar to try in desserts next month.

    Monday, March 15, 2010

    Winter Salads, the Promised Part 2

    Spring is around the corner but bountiful salads still seem a long way off. While we wait for the last of the snow to melt, here is Winter Salads, Part 2.  How to make a Single Vegetable Salad, Vegetable Antipasto from jars and a classic pairing of pear and blue cheese accented with cayenne-sugared walnuts. 

    Single Vegetable Salads
    Create a single vegetable salad when you see a really good vegetable standing out among winter weary ones.  The result is better when you simplify and focus on a single good flavor rather than hope for the best with a collection of mediocre ones.  Good candidates in the cold months are mushrooms, cucumbers or radishes. Create a star out of a modest item with a simple marinade or dressing.

    Cucumber Salad
    Serves 4
    1 English cucumber (or 3 Kirby cucumbers)
    1 teaspoon salt
    1/2 cup Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream
    1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
    1/4 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 teaspoon fresh, chopped)

    Wash cucumbers and peel if skin is tough. If you are using waxed cucumbers, peel them. Cut cucumber into thin slices using a chef’s knife or mandolin.  Toss cucumber slices with salt and let stand in a colander over a wide dish at least 15 minutes (and up to several hours).  Pat cucumbers with a towel to remove excess liquid. This prevents the cucumber juice from weeping into the sour cream and thinning down dressing.   (You may skip this step and add a pinch of salt to the dressing if you are eating the salad immediately.) Combine yogurt or sour cream with vinegar.  Add cucumbers and toss to coat.  Store covered in refrigerator until ready to serve.  This is a nice side salad with beef goulash and stews. 

    Radish Salad
    Serves 4
    1 cup radishes
    2 tablespoons water
    1/4 teaspoon each salt and sugar

    Cut cleaned radishes into thick slices or sections.  Mix water with salt and sugar in a small bowl.  Add radishes and toss to coat. Marinate about half on hour. The mild sweet-salty bath balances the bite of radishes. Serve with miso baked salmon or grilled fish. 

    Marinated Mushroom Salad
    Serves 4-6
    1 pound mushrooms (button or Bella)
    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (OK to substitute apple cider vinegar or experiment with another flavored vinegar like tarragon or fig)
    Several springs of fresh thyme
    Salt and pepper

    Wipe mushrooms clean.  If mushrooms are bite-sized, leave whole.  Cut larger mushrooms in halves or quarters.  Toss remaining ingredients together to create a simple vinaigrette.  Add mushrooms and mix well.  Allow mushrooms to marinate at least two hours or overnight to infuse dressing into mushrooms. Serve with roast chicken and a whole grain bread.  

    At this time of year, we often get a “Spring shower” of heavy snow that takes trees and power lines down.  Densely populated areas get higher priority during outages and those of us in rural spots have learned to be prepared for 3-4 day outages.  I have a power outage pantry that helps us through these trying times.  Perishable foods find their way to a large cooler on the back porch to sit out the storm.  The propane-fueled camping stove comes out and simple boiled meals that clean up easily include soft and hard boiled eggs, rice, noodles, steamed fresh vegetables and poached chicken.  Salad is created from vegetables—frozen, jarred and canned.

    You don’t need a stormy day to enjoy this Antipasto Vegetable Salad.  It will lift your spirits on any busy day.  Everything can be tossed together in one bowl with an Italian vinaigrette dressing or create a salad compose, that is laying out each ingredient on a platter over greens to create a pretty landscape of color and texture.  Guests can select their favorites to create their own salads. Pass the vinaigrette separately.  This salad makes sense with an Italian entrée like lasagna, turkey picatta or osso buco and with a protein added can become a main dish.

    Vegetable Antipasto
    Pick five of your favorites from the list below of jarred and canned vegetables. You can use more but combine at least three in this salad.  Drain the vegetables well and, unless packed in a marinade, and rinse them to remove any excess sodium from the canning process.  Arrange bite sized pieces on a beautiful platter.  Place a layer of greens underneath if you’d like.  Drizzle the arrangement with a little extra virgin olive oil and cracked pepper.  Some balsamic vinegar is also nice with this salad if you don’t feel like making a dressing. 

    Roasted red peppers
    White beans or lupini
    Garbanzo beans
    Oil cured or brined and marinated olives
    Artichoke hearts, plain or marinated (OK to use frozen that are briefly steamed to thaw)
    Italian peppers like peperoncini or Tuscan peppers
    Caponata (eggplant)
    Marinated mushrooms
    Sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
    Hearts of palm
    Asparagus

    If you’d like to add some protein for a main course salad I recommend any of the following:
    Cheese- sliced mozzarella, cubed fontina
    Tuna packed in olive oil
    Thinly sliced salami, prosciutto, mortadella or speck

    Canning returned to popularity recently and if you gave it a try, you probably have additional canned vegetables that fit into an antipasto.  If you are interested in trying canning when this summer’s backyard crop comes in, I recommend Eugenia Bone’s book Well-Preserved in which she not only provides excellent canning instructions and recipes but also shows you how to use your home canned goods in elegant meals. 

    The Classic
    Pear, blue cheese and walnut salads are year round stand-byes.  Like apples, pears are available most months and some interesting varieties emerge as the year turns.  When pears are a little hard, a light poaching in white wine and water brings them around.  I also love to roast them Jeremiah Tower style—halved, rubbed with a bit of salt and roasted on heavily sugared parchment paper.  It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the flavor to intensify and concentrate as the pears roast at 300˚F.

    Whenever good-looking Bibb or Boston lettuce is in I love to make this salad.  If things are running late, I’ll toast the walnuts but with a little more time, I make cayenne-sugared walnuts.  They provide very subtle heat to the salad and the sweetness balances the tannins in the nuts.  Be sure to hide these treats pre-dinner since they also make great nibbles with a cocktail.   Or cook a few extra and hold back the ones you need for the salad.  They keep well in an airtight container for a couple of days.

    Pear Blue Cheese Walnut Salad
    Serves 4
    1 large head Boston or Bibb lettuce (or 2 small heads)
    2 pears, cored and thinly sliced (roasted, poached or au natural)
    2-3 ounces blue cheese (Danish blue or hard blue you like)
    1/2-3/4 cup walnuts, toasted (cayenne-sugared walnuts instructions below)

    Clean and dry lettuce leaves.  Tear into large pieces and arrange on individual salad plates.  Arrange half a sliced pear over each salad and sprinkle with blue cheese and walnuts.  Serve salad with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil and lemon juice in a 4 to 1 ratio flavored with salt and pepper.

    Cayenne-Sugared Walnuts
    1 cup walnuts- whole and halve pieces
    1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

    Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add sugar and stir until melted into butter.  Add walnuts to pan.  Cook walnuts in sugar butter stirring gently to keep them coated until sugar begins to caramelize.  At that point, sprinkle nuts with cayenne and remove from heat.  Restrain yourself from over spicing the nuts even if you like hot and spicy flavors. The subtlety of the heat is what makes these special and too much heat will overpower the other flavors in the salad.  Spread the coated walnuts on wax paper and allow to cool.  Store in an air tight container (if they last more than one night).

    If you'd like to learn more about preserving and canning link to Eugenia Bone's Denver Post blog.

    Thursday, March 11, 2010

    Chicken Nachos

    Nachos have fallen rather low on the nation’s culinary respect scale.   Now consumed mindlessly at movie theaters and bars while gazing off at a screen or spilled out of paper containers at a ball game, nachos were once a treat made with real ingredients like freshly grated cheese, fresh tortilla chips and a salad of toppings.

    If this is a distant memory, try making your own for a fun lunch of light dinner.  Yes, they make appetizers that everyone loves too, but these are so good you may not get one so have your own private nacho fest.  These are light and healthy and easy enough to make every week. 

    You can sift through a bag of chips for unbroken ones to make nachos, but making your own tortilla chips is easy and a good way to get a sense of portion size. We make baked tortilla chips from corn tortillas.  They taste like restaurant ones, warm and toasty.  The fact that they are cheap and it keeps bags of chips out of sight and out of mind are bonuses. 

    Now that you know you are starting with a corn tortilla, figure out how many you’d normally eat if you were making tacos for lunch.   For me two is about right. Using a pizza cutter, cut each tortilla into 6 wedges.  Nachos for two uses 4 tortillas cut into 24 wedges.   (I won’t argue if you use three per person but try it with less than you think.  The complex carbohydrates and protein toppings are filling and satisfying.) 

    Lay the wedges on a tin foil lined baking sheet and spray lightly with spray oil. Turn the wedges over and repeat with a light coating of oil.  (Hold the oil at least 10 inches from the chips to get a light even coating.)  Place the chips in a 450˚F oven for 6-7 minutes.  Turn chips over with tongs and continue to cook another 6-7 minutes.  Chips are ready when they begin to crisp and can be bitten into cleanly.  They will still be a little flexible in the center.   Now pile on the toppings:

    1 cup cooked shredded chicken breast
    1/4 cup sliced back olives
    1 tablespoon pickled jalepeño slices
    3 oz shredded cheddar cheese

    Scoop a few teaspoons of chicken on each chip, top with olives slices and a jalepeño chip.  Give each nacho a thin layer of cheese.  Put the tray of nachos back in the oven (still at 450˚F) and cook until chicken is hot and cheese is melted. 

    These are great plain or with a drop of hot sauce (we like Cholula) and chopped fresh cilantro.  Good balancers will enjoy a bit of salsa, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), shredded lettuce and a small slice of avocado. 

    Vegetarian readers have already figured out that they can have plain cheese nachos or substitute rinsed canned black beans for the chicken.  Chicken nachos and bean-and-cheese nachos make a nice combo platter.

    Sunday, March 7, 2010

    Oranges Are Still In Season

    There is something magical about peeling an orange in public. The fragrance is powerful enough to entice co-workers to stop in smiling and fellow students to wander over from across the quad.  March marks the end of citrus season.  Get your hands on one last bag of these beauties and add them to every meal while they are still at their best and a great value. 

    Breakfast: Nothing beats freshly squeezed orange juice.  With a little more time, try French Toast with Microwave Orange Compote.  French Toast doesn’t take much longer than scrambling eggs.  This recipe has no sugar in the egg dip since the orange compote is quite sweet.  The compote tastes a lot like high quality marmalade and takes about 20 minutes to make.  You can prepare it a day or two ahead.  The rest comes together really quickly, even on weekdays.

    French Toast with Microwave Orange Compote
    Serves 4

    1 orange
    1/2 lemon
    1/4 cup water
    1 1/2 cups sugar
    8 slices bread
    4 eggs
    3/4 cup milk
    pinch salt
    1 tablespoon butter
    1 cup ricotta cheese

    Make Orange Compote
    Cut oranges and lemon in quarters and remove pulp.  Discard seeds.  Mash pulp with water in a large microwave-proof glass bowl (like PirexR).  Slice fruit skins (with pulp) paper thin and add to bowl.  Stir in 1/2 the sugar.  Cover loosely and cook on high 5 minutes, checking half-way through to stir.  Add remaining sugar and cook at half-power 10 minutes, checking at least 2 times to stir.  Lower power if sugar syrup is boiling to rapidly.  Allow compote to cool uncovered while you prepare French toast. If not using immediately, cover and refrigerate when cool.

    Make French Toast
    Mix egg, milk and salt in a shallow dish or pie plate.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat and cover lightly with a small amount of the butter.  Briefly soak each piece of bread in egg mixture on both sides and fry in skillet until browned on both sides.  As each piece is cooked, place in a warm oven (250˚F)  covered loosely with tin foil. 

    Assemble
    Mix 1/2 cup orange compote into ricotta.  Divide ricotta-orange mixture in fourths and spread over four slices of French toast.  Top with remaining four slices of toast and slice on the diagonal.  Serve with extra orange compote. 


    Lunch: I once spent a week on the beaches of Spain’s southern coast eating nothing but roasted chicken and blood oranges.  It was years before blood oranges made it to our shores and now that they are more available you can create a sophisticated chicken salad in the same vein.  Use regular oranges if blood oranges are not available or look below par. 

    Orange Vinaigrette Chicken Salad
    Serves 2 generously
    Ingredients
    1 orange, cut in half
    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (try a Spanish one)
    2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
    1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
    Dash salt
    1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

    2 cups cooked chicken, cut in chunks
    1/3 cup sliced celery
    1/4 cup sliced almonds
    1. Juice one of the orange halves into a small bowl and add next five ingredients, olive oil though black pepper.  
    2. Slice orange sections from remaining 1/2 orange.  
    3. Combine chicken with  orange sections, celery and almonds in a second bowl.  
    4. Pour vinaigrette over chicken mixture and toss well.  
    5. Wrap chicken salad in a whole wheat tortilla or a lettuce cup.

    Dinner:
    Orange-Red Pepper Pork Chops
    Great on loin chops or pork tenderloin.  If the weather cooperates make this for your inaugural spring grill out.  Serve with corn bread and a big salad.  

    Ingredients
    Juice of 1 orange
    1 tablespoon honey
    1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
    1/4 teaspoon each red pepper ,black pepper and salt.
    6 loin chops or 1 pork tenderloin

    Directions
    1. Combine orange juice, honey, vinegar and spices.  Pour over pork, cover and refrigerate (or place chops in a resealable bag).  
    2. Marinate 6 chops at least 4 hours or overnight. 
    3. Discard marinade.
    4. Grill or pan fry over pork low heat to control over- charring from sugar in marinade. 

    Snacks: Many believe that the smell of citrus is energizing making it a wonderful late afternoon snack.  A nice pairing with an orange is cottage cheese – a complete snack that will hold you until dinner.  Dark chocolate also goes well with oranges. 

    If you don’t like the feeling of orange peel under your nails, use a pairing knife to coax away the skin and pith.  To do this simply, imagine the orange is a globe.  First cut away the “poles” by scoring around the top and bottom just to the point where you feel the softer pulp.  Pull the top and bottom skin off to leave the middle girth of the orange skin.  To peel this easily, score along longitudinal lines at several intervals.  You will be able to pull sections of peel away leaving a neatly peeled whole orange.  Pull apart the segments and enjoy or slice your snack into large chunks to enjoy later. 
    My friend Evie’s grandmother, who grew up in Poland, taught her to peel an orange this way.  It is neat and elegant and always reminds of the formal enjoyment of fruit that I witnessed as a teenager in Europe.  Fruit was expensive and savored. It was never consumed thoughtlessly.  A snack is a nice way to take a break in your day—Make it a real break with a more formal snack and you’ll return to your afternoon tasks more regenerated. 


    Dessert: My sister has been known to steam holiday citrus fruit cakes in orange cups previously poached in an orange fruit syrup.  Try this much faster Orange Cake. It also delivers a bright and intense orange flavor. 

    Our Orange Cake
    Ingredients
    1 orange
    5 tablespoons unsalted butter
    1 cup sugar
    1 egg
    1 1/2 cups flour
    1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/2 cup milk
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 cup confectionary sugar
    optional: 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

    Directions
    1. Grate the rind off the fruit.
    2. Grease loaf pan or  tin for 6 large muffins.
    3. Cream butter and sugar.  Mix in egg.
    4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. 
    5. Add flour mixture, milk, orange rind and vanilla extract to batter. Mix well to combine thoroughly.  Pour batter into loaf pan or muffin tin,
    6. Bake at 350F for 40 to 45 minutes for the loaf, 25-30 minutes for large muffins or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean and cake pulls away from sides of pan.
    7. When the loaf comes out of the oven, pick it with a few times with the tip of the knife or a tooth pick. Squeeze the juice from half the fruit over the cake.
    8. When cool, turn cake out of pan.
    9. Make glaze: Mix together juice of remaining 1/2 orange, confectionary sugar and lemon juice.  When cake is cool, drizzle over top of cake/muffins. 

    Monday, March 1, 2010

    Three Curries

    Lately, friends have been asking me about curries.  With the opening of more Indian restaurants in local neighborhoods and smaller U.S. towns, rural foodies are getting a chance to try foods from regions surrounding the Indian Ocean.  The culinary curiosity this sparks inevitably follows diners home. 

    Curries are really just stews and one-pot meals in a highly flavored sauce or gravy.  While a few ingredients are new, many of the cooking techniques are familiar.  Once you’ve made a curry on your own, you’ll see the similarity and will enjoy sampling ones from different regions at home or dining out.

    There are many variations under the general heading “curry” and curry powders are a packaged convenience that most regular curry eaters eschew.  Indian and eastern cookbooks note that curry spices are blended and cooked at the time the dish is being prepared. Just as families may have their own special chili powder blend, barbeque sauce for ribs or spice rub for chicken and beef, curries allow for great creativity once you know what spices make up the basic flavor profile.  Don’t toss your jars of curry powder yet.  After you try a curry of your own, you’ll know whether you still like the pre-mixed blend or would prefer to change it up a bit. 

    Of the three curry recipes here, only one calls for pre-blended curry powder.  The other two show you how curries are easily built spice by spice.  Our first curry is beef based and perhaps the closest to a beef stew in flavor and preparation.   This is the one that uses a pre-blended curry powder.  The second curry is a chicken-chickpea-cashew one-pot meal made with tomatoes and rice.  The third is an all-vegetable curry that relies on a coconut milk base and can be served as a side dish as well as a main course.  A side dish curry is an easy way to introduce curries to your family alongside some grilled chicken or firm fish.

    When making curries, don’t be put off by the long lists of ingredients.  You will be pleasantly surprised at the number of ingredients you have on hand.  Enjoy using your spice rack.

    Massaman Beef Curry cooks in a base of peanut butter and coconut milk.  Beef is perfect here but chicken and tofu are also cooked in this curry.  Very authentic recipes use tamarind juice (especially for a vegetarian version with tofu) instead of beef broth.  I use a mixture of both if I have tamarind on hand but don’t hold off making this if you don’t have a tamarind source.   Directions below are for a slow cooker.  To cook in a conventional oven, place ingredients in a Dutch oven or other oven-approved covered pot in step 3 and cook in a 325˚F oven for about 3 hours.
    The curry powder used in Massaman Beef Curry is mild and has coriander, cumin, cinnamon, fenugreek, black pepper and very little cayenne pepper. Any blend you like is fine but if you don’t see (or smell) cinnamon in the mix, add 1/4 teaspoon to the sauce, since this is a key flavor.  Spice Islands curry blend is a good example of a mild store brand that is appropriate in this recipe.  It does not contain cinnamon so add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon for every 3 tablespoons curry powder.   

    Foolproof Massaman Curry in a Slow Cooker
    Ingredients
    2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
    2 pounds beef chuck, cut into large chunks (2-3 inches or larger if cooking on low for more that 6 hours)
    1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk  (use a low fat or lite version)
    1/4 cup peanut butter
    3 tablespoons curry powder (plus 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon if not in curry blend)
    3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce, aka nam pla (ok to substitute soy sauce)
    3 tablespoons brown sugar
    1 cup beef broth (or tamarind juice)
    2-3 potatoes, cut into large chunks
    1 cup frozen peas
    1/2 cup unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts
    fresh cilantro, pain yogurt (optional)
    Cooked rice

    Directions
    Note: Browning the meat is optional--- if you have time great.  If you are not browning the meat, mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl or screw-top jar (step 2) with a tablespoon of vegetable oil and pour it over the beef in the stock pot. 
    1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the beef in the melted butter until the beef is browned on all sides. Transfer the beef to the slow cooker while keeping the beef drippings in the skillet.
    2. Keeping the skillet on medium-high heat, stir the coconut milk, peanut butter, and curry powder into the reserved beef drippings.  Cook and stir until the peanut butter melts. Turn off the heat and stir the fish sauce, brown sugar and beef broth into the coconut milk mixture.  Pour the coconut milk mixture into the slow cooker.
    3. Turn the slow cooker on to Low. Cook on Low until the beef is fork-tender, 4 to 6 hours.   8 hours+ if using large cuts of meat. 
    4. About 20 minutes before meat is finished, boil the potatoes until just tender.  Stir the peanuts, frozen peas and potatoes into the curry and allow the peas to heat through, about 15 minutes with the slow cooker on high.
    5. Serve over rice or noodles with cilantro, cool yogurt and some pita bread


    Moroccan Cashew Stew (with Chicken) shows that those who don’t think of themselves as expert cooks can be inventive and successful creating new and wonderful dishes.  Moroccan Cashew Stew is a mild, tomato-based curry that can go two ways successfully—vegetarian or chicken. My friend Tracy created this versatile stew by trusting her own taste and making the leap to add cashews. Cashews add protein and make this curry so unique, they give it its name.


    Moroccan Cashew Stew (with Chicken)
    Ingredients
    2 cans cooked chick peas (garbanzo beans)
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken thighs or breast meat*
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    1 cup diced onions
    1/2 cup diced celery
    2 teaspoons ground ginger
    2 teaspoons turmeric
    1 teaspoon ground black pepper
    1 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
    1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice
    3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
    1/4 pound dried green lentils (roughly 1 cup dried)
    1 cup long-grain brown rice
    1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
    2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
    2 teaspoons lemon juice
    1 cup unsalted, raw cashews
    Greek yogurt, lemon wedges and cilantro for garnish
    *optional, to make a vegetarian version, skip chicken step and substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth. 

    1. Heat olive oil in a medium stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and celery and cook over medium heat until softened, about 4 minutes.  
    2. Add ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Stirring prevents spices from burning.  
    3. Add tomatoes with their juice plus chicken stock, lentils and chickpeas.  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook at a low simmer for about 1 hour.
    4. Add chicken pieces, rice and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.  If liquid is almost absorbed, add an additional cup of broth or water.   Cover and return pot to simmer. Cook thirty-forty minutes more until chicken is cooked through and rice is soft.  Stew will be thick and have absorbed most of the liquid.
    5. Stir in cilantro, parsley, lemon juice and cashews.  Cook, uncovered, an additional five minutes or until cashews have softened. 
    6. Serve in wide bowls with a dollop of yogurt, lemon wedge and a generous sprinkling of herbs. 

    Notes
    If you’d like more heat, Tracy suggests adding 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper to the recipe.  You can mix it in with the other spices or at the end when the herbs are added.


    Vegetable Basket Curry (and Soup) is a hearty vegetable stew.  It makes a large batch and can be divided into smaller portions and frozen.  Serve it over rice, couscous or noodles.    The curry can also be pureed with a bit of low-fat coconut milk and/or vegetable broth to make soup.  Since both the stew and the soup versions freeze well, this is one of those efficient recipes that pays dividends when you want something hearty but don’t have much energy or time.

    Vegetable Basket Curry (and Soup)
    1 medium onion
    1 stalk celery, scrubbed, thinly sliced
    3 Tablespoons olive oil
    1 teaspoon turmeric
    1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or 1/8 teaspoon each cayenne, oregano, paprika, cumin)
    1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
    1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
    2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
    2 medium parsnips, peeled and sliced
    1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
    1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
    1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut in bite-sized chunks
    2 medium zucchini, sliced
    14 oz can beans, drained- chick peas, kidney beans or white beans recommended
    pinch saffron threads
    1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
    2 T fresh parsley, chopped
    (salt & pepper)

    1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, sauté onions and celery in olive oil until translucent.  
    2. Add turmeric, chili powder, ginger and cinnamon and cook briefly to release oils.  
    3. Add carrots and parsnips and stir in vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook 5 minutes. 
    4. Add butternut squash, cauliflower and zucchini.  Cover and cook another 10 minutes.  
    5. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook over low heat uncovered about 5 minutes more or until all the vegetables are at desired tenderness.

    If you are trying this curry as a side dish, serve it with a simple grilled chicken, marinated in yogurt, crushed fresh garlic, coriander, cayenne pepper, cumin, lemon juice and salt.  This is the famous Tandoori Chicken which is usually made with skinned bone-in chicken parts.

    After cooking these three curries, you'll know enough to start making your own curry spice blends to hand out as gifts at the holidays.  Or, just pass along the recipes.